The Game of Darkness
"..."
Not a single word had been spoken since we entered the dungeon. We were all simply too bewildered to know what to say.
The qualification the skull had demanded was clearly 'at least one climax every day for the past 30 days.' Which meant that for thirty straight days, whoever it was had been doing lewd things—every single day, all the way to the finish. And the person who'd done it... was the candidate saintess?
The pure, noble image she'd projected until just moments ago hadn't merely cracked—it had detonated spectacularly, and I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to treat Risnet now.
I glanced over at the other two. Valerie, equally confused, was blinking as she alternated her gaze between the floor and Risnet, while even Fresia, who rarely let anything shake her, looked flustered as she stared holes into the back of Risnet's head.
Just what is this saintess...?
While we all stood there struck dumb, a staircase leading downward appeared. I decided, for now, to focus on the dungeon exploration.
"Stay alert from here on! Enemies could appear at any moment."
"Then I shall take the lead."
Valerie moved to the front, while Fresia fell in at the very rear, with me and Risnet in between.
Trudge, trudge.
The long corridor that unfolded before us was dotted with large doors at intervals, and though the sparse torches gave the hall itself a creepy, haunted air, bright light leaked out through the gaps of those doors. Valerie gripped her sword tight and dropped into a ready stance; Fresia raised her crossbow in both hands. Watching the two of them, I drew my sword as well.
We approached the first door on the left side of the corridor slowly, and at Valerie's signal, took up positions at an angle to the door, keeping our distance. From inside, the boisterous chatter of people could be heard.
Wait a second. This is the Pleasure Dungeon, isn't it...?
People had been kidnapped and locked up in here, and those people were in that room...
Inside a room of the Pleasure Dungeon...!
Meanwhile, Valerie placed her hand not on the left door, but on the right one's handle. If she pulled it open like this, the interior would be laid bare. And then—
Creeeak. THUD!
Valerie yanked the door open in one swift motion, then immediately kicked it the rest of the way and retreated to a safe distance.
Once our eyes adjusted to the bright light spilling out, the scene inside the room came into clear view.
"Wahahaha!" "There you go~"
The clatter of dishware, the sounds of people smacking their lips between laughter. The room was an enormous dining hall.
"Uh...?"
Our tension deflated with an audible hiss, and after a moment we crept closer to the door and peeked inside.
I hadn't seen wrong. The forty-odd people in there were seated in rows along long tables, eating the variety of foods laid out before them.
"This is... not what I expected."
"Me neither."
"I thought they'd be getting up to something naughty in there~"
"Kh..." "Mm..."
Neither Valerie nor I could say a word in response to Fresia's remark. So she'd been thinking the same thing I was...
"Something is very wrong. Look at the people closely."
At Risnet's words, the three of us looked at the room again. She was right—something about them was off. Not a single one of them was talking to anyone. Forget conversation—they paid no mind whatsoever to the person beside them or in front of them, utterly consumed by nothing but eating. Even though we had flung the door wide open, not one of them so much as glanced at us, standing mere steps away.
"It's as if... the act of eating itself has stolen their minds."
Just as Risnet said, every last one of them was wolfing down their food like starving dogs, devouring it with a single-minded gluttony that sent chills down my spine at a glance.
"It's impossible to mistake this for a party banquet hall... What are your orders, Hero?"
"Let's check the other rooms first."
And so, leaving that door hanging open behind us, we began to search the other rooms.
When we opened the second door, on the right side, we found people gathered around circular tables scattered throughout the room, all of them playing games—rolling dice, dealing cards, and the like.
"A gambling den if there ever was one."
"Every single one of them's mid-game, no exceptions."
Just as Fresia said, everyone was absorbed in their games, and the sight only deepened my misgivings.
We slammed open the door to the third room, from which no light escaped—and found all the people inside sprawled across beds, fast asleep.
"No one so much as stirred."
Just as Valerie said, not a single person twitched at the loud bang of the door. They simply breathed, each lost in their own soft snoring.
"They don't appear to be dead, and yet... they feel as though they might as well be."
Her impression was shared. That many people lying down and sleeping in perfect unsetting silence—it was creepy as hell.
The rooms after that were more of the same.
"Ow, hot!"
One room was a sauna, the people inside slumped over like wet rags.
Clang! Clang!
Another room was lined with exercise equipment like a gymnasium.
Another was—
"Ugh... this one's kind of creepy..."
A room whose walls were packed with painted images of divine figures. Each seemed to depict a different god, and the people had clustered into small groups before them, offering prayers without pause.
"Everyone..."
Even Risnet's clasped hands trembled at the sight. Spooked by the unsettling scene, I had Valerie shut the door.
We stood in the corridor for a while, taking stock of the situation.
"By my count of everyone we've seen so far... a hundred—no, closer to two hundred people."
"There's no way that many came from the villages around here alone."
"So does that mean they've been abducted from other places too...?"
While the rest of us were focused on the sheer numbers, Fresia pulled a different crucial point out of her mouth.
"Doesn't every room seem to have one single theme?"
At Fresia's remark, the other three of us nodded.
"You're right. One room was all about food, another entertainment... each room had something specific designed to hold people's attention."
"And every one of them was completely lost in that object of focus."
"They were all weird~ like something had bewitched them."
Risnet's words, followed by those two, rang true to me as well. The people were all entranced by something.
"I suppose all we can do is check the remaining rooms?"
As I said it, I looked toward the end of the corridor we'd already reached. There, unlike all the others, stood a door set directly into the front wall. Compared to the grand double doors we'd seen so far, it was a modest, unassuming thing.
We stopped before that door, so plainly different from the rest.
"The path we've taken has been a straight line... If some kind of magic or hypnosis has been placed on the abducted people, the culprit will certainly be inside this room."
"Then all the more reason for caution."
Valerie said this in response to Risnet, and took hold of the handle. The door opened by pulling. Fresia positioned herself where the room's interior would be visible the moment it swung open, crossbow aimed, while I waited behind Valerie with my sword drawn.
Creeeeeak.
The door opened slowly, and Fresia walked forward carefully before circling back to my side. At last, the door swung fully open. We held our breath for a moment—then slowly approached.
Unlike the previous rooms, the space felt somewhat cramped, with a relatively low ceiling. A few torches hung on the walls, and their weak flames made it decidedly darker than the banquet hall we'd just seen.
Inside were a bookshelf, a bed, a chest of drawers. It gave the impression of a room someone actually lived in.
We stood at the threshold and stared inside. Or more precisely, at the table in the center of the room—and more precisely still, at the hooded figure seated beyond that table, facing us.
"My, my, my~ So you've come to this room after all."
The figure beneath the hood, only its eyes faintly visible, spoke. Judging by the voice, a young woman.
"Are you the one who created this dungeon?"
I asked, standing at the front alongside Valerie.
"That's right, it was me. This is the Pleasure Dungeon. I made it myself."
"Why did you abduct these people?!"
In response to Valerie's question, the hooded woman extended her index fingers and wagged them side to side.
"Tsk tsk tsk~ Wrong. They walked in here of their own accord, and they stay because they want to."
"Of their own accord?"
"That's right. Because in this place, you can indulge in whatever pleasure your heart desires, endlessly. Delicious food, entertaining games, restful sleep. Even that blissful feeling of communing with the divine! All of it, for as long as you like...
All without ever knowing it might be an illusion!"
"An illusion?!"
Risnet gasped at the hooded woman's words and squeezed out between me and Valerie.
"Deceiving people and toying with their hearts... What is your goal?!"
"My purpose is to serve Her whom I worship!"
The hooded figure rose from her seat and spread her arms wide, shouting.
"I am the right hand of the great Lady Lilith, the 'Queen of Succubi,' one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's Army—Sukmehek!!
This dungeon is a Nutrient Factory, built for the glory of my mistress, Lady Lilith!"
"Nutrient Factory?"
"Yes! A human's life force replenishes itself over time. So I built this factory to continuously drain that life force away! Hee-haw!"
Sukmehek explained, her voice swelling with excitement and pride.
"Release these people at once!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
At Risnet's cry, Valerie and I gripped our swords tighter and dropped into stances, while Fresia moved up behind us.
"Gotcha!"
THUD. Clack.
The moment Sukmehek spoke, the door slammed shut. Then came the unmistakable, crystalline sound of a lock engaging.
She's trapped us?!
"Serves you right for charging into a room with your temper blazing~ Absolute idiots!"
Valerie leveled her blade at Sukmehek as she taunted us.
"We'll simply break the door down on our way out. After we've dealt with you!"
"Oh my, my~ Have you still not grasped the situation? This is my dungeon. If you attack me, or try to force your way out of this room...
what do you think I'll do to the humans in here?"
"Tch!" "She got us..."
Valerie and I clicked our tongues.
"But~ I have no intention of beating you down, either. You four walked that entire corridor without falling under my hypnosis—without being affected so much as a speck. In other words, your mental fortitude and life force are exceptional... And I can't very well crush such fine nutrients into paste, now can I?"
"Then what exactly are you proposing?"
Risnet pressed herself close against my back as she spoke. Sukmehek gave a lecherous, smirking chuckle before answering at last.
"We play a game. You'll wager 'the liberation of these humans'—and I'll wager... well, you'll wager your own lives!"